Dr. Oz Sued By Frank Dietl Over 'Knapsack Heated Rice Footsie' Insomnia Cure

By Thomas Barrabi | March 19 2013 3:34 PM

A man from New Jersey claims that an insomnia cure promoted on “The Dr. Oz Show” caused third-degree burns on his feet.

New Jersey resident Frank Dietl sued Dr. Mehmet Oz, pictured, on Monday, claiming the celebrity doctor's "knapsack rice footsie" insomnia cure caused third-degree burns.

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According to Frank Dietl, a resident of Southampton, N.J., Dr. Memhet Oz’s patented “knapsack heated rice footsie” left him injured rather than cured of his insomnia. Dietl has filed a Manhattan Supreme Court case against the celebrity doctor.

“He wound up with third-degree burns on his feet and was confined to his bed for weeks,” attorney Dominick Gullo said to the Daily News on Monday.

According to the Daily News, the doctor’s quirky cure was originally broadcast during an April 17 segment of "The Dr. Oz Show” entitled “Dr. Oz’s 24-Hour Energy Boost.” In the clip, he urged viewers to fill a pair of tube socks with rice, warm them up in a microwave and put them on before going to sleep.

“You do this and lie down for about 20 minutes with those socks on in bed. The heat will divert blood to your feet,” Oz explained. “When your feet get hot, guess what happens to your body? It gets cold. Your body will automatically adjust its core temperature, and, as it gets cooler, you’re going to be able to sleep better because your body has to be cold in order to get sleepy.” Dr. Oz also cautioned his audience against allowing the socks to get too hot, the Daily News reports.

Dietl, the brother of legendary New York detective and television personality Bo Dietl, claims to have received improper instructions. According to his lawsuit, he didn’t realize how hot the socks were until he got up in the middle of the night and tried to walk around in them. Dietl adds that he suffers from neuropathy, a complication of diabetes that causes numbness in the extremities and which may have contributed to his injuries.

“There were no proper instructions or proper warnings,” his attorney, Dominick Gullo, said. “There were no warnings to anybody with neuropathy to not try it.”

Tim Sullivan, a spokesman for the company that produces “The Dr. Oz Show,” told the Daily News that, while he couldn’t comment on the specifics of the case, “we stand by the content in our program as safe and educational for our viewers.”